Pat Shannan's MUSINGS
Corporate Raiding Redefined
Jesse Jackson has for decades been the darling of the establishment news media. It was he who perfected the art of "Corporate Shakedown," without fear of media exposure.
USA Today reports that the new champions of national slavery reparations have now adopted the Jackson approach. Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree and TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson's "dream team" of lawyers and activists are planning to present corporate America with a bill for the crimes of slave masters and traders over a century ago. This team includes L.A. attorney Johnnie Cochran -- famous for the OJ hat trick -- Harvard professor and rapper Cornel West, and several other prominent black leftists from academia.
The group has identified six corporations as possible targets for what would be only the first attempt at a judicial lynching. The potential defendants consist of three insurance companies -- Aetna, New York Life, and AIG -- and three financial corporations -- J.P. Morgan, Chase Manhattan, and FleetBoston.
In reality, none of the other proposed targets qualifies as a "white corporation." They have black employees, shareholders, executives, and pensioners who would all share the burden of the financial devastation that could come from a racially loaded lawsuit. As reported by Chris Weinkopf of Front Page Magazine in February, customers of all races would also be affected, either through higher prices, diminished services, or fewer choices in the marketplace.
Preying on white guilt and corporate America's innate fear of negative publicity, Jackson systematically made the rounds of some of the nation's biggest companies, wondered aloud why there weren't more black faces in the workrooms, and dropped a few unsubtle hints about boycotts to bring this to the public's attention.
It usually did not take long for the company to sign a pledge committing itself to more "diversity," which it would back up by hiring some of Jackson's friends to high-paying positions, or by granting handsome donations to his Rainbow Coalition. In one of the most searing examples, the St. Louis brewery Anheuser-Busch cemented Jackson's friendship by selling his sons a Chicago beer distributorship for a song, as exposed by columnist Lowell Ponte in 1999.
The reparations movement, initially greeted with hoots of derision by white America, has refused to go away. A suit against the U.S. government failed in 1995, and Rep. John Conyers (D, Mich.) has sponsored a reparations bill in Congress, without success, every year since 1989. Previous attempts have failed because the law was never on the plaintiffs' side -- statutes of limitations having long since expired, no living victims, etc.
In addition, as David Horowitz points out with his stand against such reparations in his book, Uncivil Wars, not all blacks could possibly qualify. Those who arrived since 1865 bear no connection, ancestrally or otherwise, to the slave trade.
But in the case of corporate shakedowns, the law is irrelevant. It's public pressure, public perception, and public relations that matter the most. However, Jackson's use of his complaints of racism against major corporations as a method of extortion and blackmail in order to reap millions for himself and his organizations may be only the tip of his shenanigan's iceberg.
New Expose' of Jesse
Author Ken Timmerman may change the public's perception of Jackson in the near future. His new book , Shakedown: The Life & Lies of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, does not shy away from an honest portrayal and even exposes the fact that the "reverend" was never ordained as a minister. Timmerman also reports on Jackson's ties to the Chicago mob and his ruthless methods: "Beatings, death threats, career destruction and verbal assaults that border on incitement to murder are all staples of the Jackson Treatment."
According to Shakedown, there is much information from the shady side of Jackson that has long been in the hands of the news media but never reported. Such as:
* How Jackson personally profited from "non-profit" groups whose funds were intended to help poor minorities and civil rights programs.
* How Jackson's voracious appetite for women earned him the nickname "Action Jackson."
* The special relationship Jackson formed with Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky affair and how Jackson got millions in taxpayer funds for being a Democratic Party mouthpiece.
* The utilization of his "public service" image to live the lifestyle of Donald Trump: private jets, international travel, top class hotels, million dollar homes, the best of everything.
Jackson critics are hopeful that Timmerman's book will lead to a full Justice Department investigation of Jackson and his shakedown business activities. However, this may be much easier said than done, as Jesse Jackson seems to have enjoyed the same princely treatment from Washington bigwigs as he has received from the news media over the years.
Pat Shannan's past MUSINGS columns and various investigative reports are archived at www.patshannan.com